Chapter XLII
The Answer He Sent His Natural And Spiritual Brother Who Had Tried To Persuade Him In Letters That He Should Visit Him In The Inhabited World Because He Longed To See Him
We are not strong, as thou supposest, o blessed one. Perhaps thou art acquainted with my weakness, but thou makest not much of my destruction. Constantly thou askest me this, placing nature above the thought which once burned in thee, showing thereby that thou doest not consider it even as a matter to be treated carefully, though to us it seems to be a matter of care. Do not ask from me, o my brother, what gives consolation to body and mind, but let me seek the salvation of my soul. Yet a short time and we shall have passed away from this world. It is not unknown to thee how many persons I should meet, if I went to thy dwelling-place; how many sorts of people and of places, before I should have 314 returned unto my place; and by meeting them, what cause for thought my soul would receive - my soul, that would be disturbed by the affections which would be awakened in it, after it has been left in peace by them a little. That the sight of lay people injures the solitary, is a fact with which thou art acquainted; not just the sight of women, but also of men. Behold how many varying states pass through the mind of him that has for a long time been alone with his soul and then suddenly comes in contact with these things, hearing and seeing what he is not wont to see and to hear. If meeting his fellow brethren injures him that is engaged in the struggle and still wrestles with his foe, if the brethren are not in concorclance with his aim, into what pit would we fall, that have to be freed from the sting of our foe? Especially those [among
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us] that know these things by long experience. Therefore I am not to be persuaded to do this without necessity. Our heart does not err after those who say that hearing and seeing will not harm us and that, in the desert or in the inhabited world, within our cell or without it, we are alike in our deliberations on account of our being at rest against perturbation as long as we do not experience evil varying states and as long as we do not perceive the meeting with persons and things by the shock of affections. Those who say this, do not even know it when they receive a blow. But as to us, we have not yet reached this psychic health. We suffer from rotting abscesses; which, if they be left without bandages but for one day, so that they appeared from under the plasters and the bonds, would abound with worms.